And they will look to pad that number, as they are in the field again this year.
Being the highest ranked team in the field in the preseason polls, I would assume that Syracuse should be considered the favorite to bring home their third Maui title. However, as I've mentioned in other posts previously there are some other good teams in the field who will have something to say about that.
Syracuse could have a potential match-up with California in the 2nd round, who despite not being a top 25 team, does have experience going up against Syracuse recently (2nd round of last year's NCAA Tournament). So they shouldn't be thrown for a loop by the zone, the way some other less familiar teams might. And looming on the other side of the bracket for a potential title game matchup are #14 Gonzaga and #26 Baylor. And of course, I should at least mention that we can't look past our first round matchup either. Considering they received no votes in the preseason polls, I'm assuming Minnesota is not expected to be very good this year. But they did hire a Pitino in the offseason, so you know he'll have them prepared to play the zone as well.
A shout out to my friend Dan Theal for this little nugget. Duke (16-0) and Syracuse (6-0) are the only two teams to never lose in the Maui Invitational. Here's to hoping that we can still give that same stat as we celebrate another title come this Thanksgiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment